What are your thoughts on the current ethics code for elected and appointed officials?
7 registered responses
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Are there areas of concern you have with the current Ethics Code?
Questions:
I assume this applies to all Sugar Land employees as well as elected officials (council and Mayor) as well as political appointees (like the zoning and planning boards/committees). Is this correct?
Are affidavits on the nature and extent of business interest that limits them from voting on certain subjects open to the public for review and openly made available or do formal FOIA requests required?
Having worked for Major Oil Companies most of my career, “any interest” other than publically traded stock, “must” be reported to the company. Why not the city. This would include ownership or employment by the person, spouse, or children.
On the issue of “Disclosure of Certain Gifts…”
c) The requirement of a) and b) above, do not apply to a gift or other benefit conferred on account of kinship or a personal, professional, or business relationship independent of the status of the recipient as a city official.
How does this get defined? But the councilman? If so, this could easily cause this rule/guideline to be worthless if measured by the individual rather than a city standard of ethics. Who is the judge of this? Sounds like the individual and this leaves this open to question.
Misues and disclosure of confidential information: What information or type of information might the city have that could be deemed confidential? I can’t imagine what the Sugar Land City Council or City Manager might have that is deemed confidential. While salaries don’t necessarily need to be published in the paper, since they are public officials funded by the taxpayers, even that information would be in the public record. Contracts with vendors should be public, at least the results.
What type of data is confidential?
On the review panel for infractions, a minimum quorum of 4 councilmen are required and a vote of 4 is required to take action. Seems like this could be a “fix” to protect their membership. An alternate review panel should be other officials, like in the county for example, when a quorum of “more” than the required number to take action can’t be organized.
Something seems terribly wrong with this process.
Doug White
Sugar Land
Are there issues you believe are missing from the current Ethics Code that need to be addressed?
No response.Any other additional information you would like the Citizens Ethics Task Force to consider?
No response.